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At least 45 Nigerian security personnel are dead after gunmen believed to be Boko Haram militants attacked the town of Buni Yadi.

Hundreds of gunmen on trucks and motorcycles stormed the town in northeastern Yobe state late Monday.

A source with Nigeria's Joint Task Force tells VOA's Hausa Service that 24 soldiers and 21 police officers were confirmed dead following the attack.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the gunmen took away an armored tank and many vehicles.

There has been no word on civilian casualties.

Major attacks blamed on Nigeria's Boko Haram

2009
July - Attacks prompt government crackdown in Bauchi and Maiduguri; 800 people killed

2010
December - Bombings in central Nigeria and church attacks in the northeast kill 86

2011
June - Attack on a bar in Maiduguri kills 25
August - Suicide bomber kills 23 at U.N. building in Abuja
November - Bombings in Damaturu and Potiskum kill 65
December - Christmas Day bombings across Nigeria kill 39

2012
January -- Gun and bomb attacks in Kano up to 200
February - Maiduguri market attack kills 30
June - Suicide car bombings at three churches kill 21
July - Attacks in Plateau state kill dozens, including two politicians at a funeral for the victims

2013
February - French family kidnapped in Cameroon, held hostage for two months
April - Fighting with troops in Baga kills up to 200; residents say troops set deadly fires
May - Attacks in Bama kill more than 50
July - Gunmen kill 30 at a school in Yobe
August - Gunmen kill 44 at a mosque outside Maiduguri
September - Gunmen kill 40 students at a post-secondary school in Yobe
December - Militants attack military installations in Maiduguri

2014
January - Militants kill 74 people and burn down a village in attacks in Borno and Adamawa
February - Gunmen kill as many as 60 in attack on school in Yobe
April - Militants abduct 276 schoolgirls

A Hausa Service reporter who is in northeastern Nigeria said militants are also attacking motorists on highways leading in and out of Maiduguri, a city in Borno state.

Boko Haram is based in Borno state.

Drivers said snipers wait in trees to fire at passing cars, which are then attacked by gunmen hiding in bushes by the side of the road.

Despite promises of action from President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigerian security forces have been unable to stop the increasingly frequent attacks either claimed by or blamed on Boko Haram.

The twin bombings in the city of Jos last week killed 130 people, and Boko Haram continues to hold more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from a school in the village of Chibok last month.

The Islamist radicals have killed thousands of people over the past five years in attacks on schools, churches, mosques, bus stations and other public places.

On Monday, the head of the Nigerian military, Chief of Defense Staff Air Marshal Alex Badeh, said the military knew the location of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.

VOA spoke by phone with family members of the missing girls about what Badeh called "good news" that the girls had been located.

Those relatives said their hopes have been raised before, but that they will believe the news when the girls are returned home safely.

The U.S. State Department says it has no independent information on the Nigerian government's claim that it knows the location of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram extremists.

Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday even if the United States knew where they are, it would not talk about it publicly.

She also said like the Nigerians, the U.S. would probably not attempt a rescue mission because of the safety and security of the girls.

Nigeria has accepted assistance from the United States and several other countries to help find the girls but has ruled out the use of foreign troops.

Comments page of 2

Let us pray together in one mine to save our conutry nigeria from this boko haram

by: Joshua from: Lagos

May 29, 2014 5:37 AM

If were the chibok girls are really discovered,"lets do something before something do us"b/c possibly they can re-locate them.

by: mahmood from: nasarawa

May 29, 2014 2:37 AM

This is our country we should pray for peace in respective of our race/religious.

by: Abdullahi from: niger state

May 29, 2014 2:18 AM

may Allah protect us and give peace to our countrie nd those girls in the hand of boko haram nd we shuld be in peace

by: ISMAIL from: KANO

May 28, 2014 1:30 PM

MAY GOD PROTECT US AMEEN

by: Dr Sota Omoigui from: California

May 28, 2014 1:04 PM

The failure of a government to protect it's citizens is the last stage before descent into anarchy. Like every other institution in Nigeria, unbridled corruption has incapacitated and destroyed the Nigerian army. An evil rag tag Boko Haram has shown that the corrupt Emperor has no clothes. There is no way forward until Nigerians rise up and say No to corruption that has left no roads no power, no education, no health care, no infrastructure and now no army.

by: yusuf from: lagos

May 28, 2014 4:22 AM

how we can do to attack this people so that they we not kill all nigeria?

by: Leroy Padmore from: Jersey City

May 28, 2014 12:24 AM

The Nigerian Government has one of the strongest military in Africa. We have seen the Nigerian military fighting in Liberia, against the Charles Taylor rebels. Which was one of the strongest rebels in Africa. and the Nigerian military were able to crushed Mr.Taylor rebels. That which is happening in Nigeria, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan needs to carefully look within his parliament. There are people in his hierarchy that are supporting the Boko Haram. Why it is that the Nigerian Government is not using excessive force? Because there are people in the Goodluck Government who don't want him to success. So for this reason, they are undermining his Government. This is a game that Boko Haram is playing, in at much they have the girls, the Nigerian Government have to limit their attack on them. Because the safety of the girls come first. and Boko Haram knows that. Right now because of those girls, the whole conflict has change. The Nigerian military cannot use the force she wants to use anymore. This very hard for the Goodluck Government. God Bless our girls

by: poop from: Rapids, WI

May 27, 2014 10:55 PM

Killing 45 soldiers, steeling a armored tank, steeling a number of army trucks, and kidnapping 200 girls! I myself find that hard to believe.

by: Not Again from: Canada

May 27, 2014 9:40 PM

In my view, the Nigerian high command takes the prize for being the most inept leadership of all the military forces on the planet; very closely followed by the Ukrainian high command.It is very sad to see that ciitizens, of Nigeria, and the Ukraine, trust their children into the hands of such inept incompetent persons in charge; they are in charge in name only; they have no understanding of their duties, responsabilities and very little knowledge, if any, of what their positions entail. It is a terrible leadership, that allows such inept people to remain in charge of anything, but so it goes and it continues.

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